Amanda Johnson Dressage LLC

Gold Coast Opener CDI

I went to watch the Grand Prix for the Kur on Friday after working the horses.  As I was waiting for the class to start I saw Silverwood owner Lisa Froehlig on Wolfie warming up for their class the following day.  The Grand Prix had many promising pairs, but many of the horses were affected by the atmosphere and showed much tension.  I hope to see these horses relax as the season progresses.  Ashley Holtzer was a real highlight, the only rider to break 70%.   The next day I returned with Stewart and Kelly to watch the Kur.  Ashley Holter and Pop Art were the clear winners, and had a very exciting freestyle.  I loved the canter on the spot to piaffe!

Lisa and Wolfie

Lesson with Henk van Bergen

Reflection

Half Steps with Henk

Mirror

Lesson with Henk van Bergen

Canter Pirouette

On Wednesday, January 20th, I recieved a text from JJ Tate, letting me know there was an opening in the Henk van Bergen clinic being held at Jennifer Baumerts place.  I jumped at the opprotunity, and was able to trailer (5 min down the rode!) on Thursday for a lesson with Henk.  I explained to Henk that we had just arrived to Florida from Wisconsin, and Pip had only been ridden once since arriving.  Henk said that was not a problem, and we must only work within the horses ability.  He said that he would watch me warm up and ride my normal way and only speak up if there was a problem.  We could not fix anything in a day, but he could give me some tips and tell me what I need to work on.  We made it through the warm up and then he stopped and asked me who my trainer was.  I told him the most consistent trainer I have had was Conrad Schumacher, and he replied, ”I thought that warm-up looked familiar!”  I went through my trot routine of shoulder-ins, voltes, and renver, then into more collected trot to passage.  This is where Henk stepped in.  Pip likes to raise his neck when starting the more collected movements, and to try to avoid this problem he made me more aware of the connection before the transition.  Make sure the horse is where you want him before you ask for the transition, and then ask for it.  If you come to a issue where they stiffen again, stay in the movement until you are able to supple them, and then go out of it.  We did some passage piaffe transitions and were able to get the piaffe more active and on the spot.  Henk was pleased with the regularity of the transitions in and out.  Yay!  Then we went on to the canter pirouette work, and worked on the same issues, keeping the horse more supple and relaxed in the ultra collected work.  Pip was never stresses and we were able to get a lot out of him.  He was a very kind, and encouraging instructor.  Thanks to Stewart Underhill for taking great photos!

2010 Succeed/USDF FEI-Level Trainers’ Conference

2010 Succeed/USDF FEI-Level Trainers’ Conference

After going to bed at 4:30 in the morning, I decided to wake up at 8:00am and go watch the Trainers Conference.  I missed the first ride, but was able to see the others.  Henk van Bergen was the clinician.  His ideas were very classical and very horse-friendly.  He would say make your corrections forward, and don’t destroy the rhythm.  He was good at describing feel, one example would be: how do you tell someone to close the horse up “a little bit?”  What is “a little bit?”  If you put your finger in the door, and then close the door “a little bit” then you know how much is a “little bit.”  It was refreshing to start the Florida trip watching quality horses and riders.

Heading to Florida!

Getting ready to leave Silverwood

Pip, Anakin and Oxford, ready to go!

Silverwood Farm, January 17 2010

On Sunday, January 17, 2010, we loaded up the trailers and left for Florida.  It was a two day trek, with an overnight stop in Chattanooga, TN.  Horses arrived late Monday night (or early Tuesday morning), and were quickly settled into their new digs.  All horses arrived safely, and with no problems!

Stay tuned in!

Florida Arena

amandajohnsondressage.com will keep you updated with our adventures in Florida!  We are leaving Sunday, January 17th!  So, check back often for updates, photos and video!

Amanda Johnson Dressage Heads to Florida!

I am happy to announce that Amanda Johnson Dressage LLC will be located in Loxahatchee, Florida, from January 15 to March 15.  We will be traveling down and sharing a barn with Underhill Farm.  I will be available for training and lessons in the Wellington/Loxahatchee area during that time, please contact for more info!  Pip, Anakin and Oxford are looking forward to the warm weather!

November 13-15 2009 Two Clinics in One Weekend!

The weekend of November 13-15, I had the opportunity to ride in two clinics.  One clinic was at Tempel Farms with Conrad Schumacher, the other clinic was at Silverwood Farms with Lilo Fore.  Both clinics were fantastic and I learned a lot. 

Pip Piaffing at Schumacher Clinic, Tempel Farms

The Schumacher clinic was great.  Pip felt very good, and we made great strides over the weekend.  Our last ride of the clinics was probably one of the best rides I have ever had.  He was so excepting of the Piaffe and Passage, and by the end of the ride we had very elevated, relaxed, carrying, powerful, passage.  Wow, what a feeling!  A great part about it is I have been able to reproduce it at home!  Always a good thing!

Jamaal Lilo Fore Clinic

The Lilo Fore clinic was so much fun!  I rode my new young horse, Foley the first day.  I sent Foley to Klaus Biesenthal to be started undersaddle, and when he gave me the OK that Foley was indeed broke after a few months, I brought him to Silverwood the first of November.  I was very impressed with Foley, he is only 3, and has only been at Silverwood for 2 weeks.  He handled everything very well, the people coming in and out, the tractor coming through the arena, having our first lesson together, and all I can say is, “good boy Foley!”  I also rode Jamaal in the clinic.  We worked on the flying changes.  He was able to do a clean change from left to right, but from right to left he was always slightly early in front and slightly late behind!  We tried various exercises to try and get it clean, and what seemed to work the best was to ride the canter very forward and have the whip in the outside (or new inside) hand.  I was to create large, jumping strides behind, and then ride forward into the change and tap him with the whip when asking.  We ended the clinic with a very nice, big, expressive and CLEAN change!  woo-hoo! 

Anakin and Kaye-Eileen

Kay-Eileen rode Anakin in the clinic and learned a lot!  Lilo really worked her, and by the end of the clinic she was riding very well!  Denise was also able to brave it out and take a lesson on her horse GiGi with Lilo.  I was unable to see it, as I was riding with Schumacher at the time, but I heard from Lilo that it went very well, and she thought GiGi and Denise were a super-cute pair!

Thank you to Hannah for taking great photos!

October Schumacher Clinics

Directly after Regional Championships there was a Schumacher clinic held at Tempel Farms.  I rode Pip, and we were able gain more confidence in the Piaffe work.  When that clinic was over, Pip, Anakin and I hitched a ride with Stewart Underhill and proceeded to go to his place, Alpine Farm, for another Schumacher Clinic!  We both had early rides at Tempel Farm and were able to pack up early, go to Silverwood to pick up Anakin and then make our way to the Twin Cities where Alpine Farm is located.  When we arrived at Alpine we were able to unload, and work the horses than go pick Schuamcher up from the Airport.  Talk about a long day!  The Symposium at Alpine was a blast.  Anakin was a star and showed how to develop collection in the young horse, and received some high praise from Schumacher.  Pip performed his I-1 Freestyle, and proper warming up techniques.  It was fun to be back in Region 4 and meet up with some old friends!  I wrote an article about these clinics for the IDCTA Scribe, which can be found here:  idcta_scribe_december_20091

2009 ABIG/USDF Region 2 Championships

Pip

The Region 2 Championships were held at Lamplight Equestrian Center in the first weekend of October.  This time of year we could have gotten any weather imaginable.  What we got was rain, rain, rain.  I think the only show it did not rain at this year was in Kentucky!  Pip handled the rain and mucky footing pretty well the first two days, taking a reserve championship in the LEC Championshipsat Grand Prix and I-2.  However, asking him to perform for the third and fourth day in the muck was too much for him.  He is just not strong enough to perform the Grand Prix 4 days in a row, in sloppy conditions.  So next year we will try for the Regional Championships at Grand Prix!  Anakin performed very well, and has really grown up this year!  He was Reserve Champion at First Level LEC Championships, and 3rd place in the First Level Freestyle LEC Championships.  For his Regional Championships he was in the ribbons for an 8th place finish at First Level, in a large class of 32!  He had an minor blow-up in the freestyle for 5th place finish.  Jamaal had a difficult time with the footing, with his massive size and platter feet, he was sliding around a lot.  He still performed with much gusto, put in pretty mistake free tests.  He came in 8th place for the Second Level LEC Championships, and finished a respectable 12th out of 27 in the ABIG/USDF Second Level

Vemilion B

Championships.  The lovely, exuberant, Vemilion B had some exciting classes at the show.  He started off on the edge, but put in a pretty clean Open Training 4 for a 70%, for his second class in the scary arena 7, he spent most of his canter work bucking and leaping around and trying very hard to tell me we need to vacate the premises immediately!  When he was good, he was very good, and we ended up with a 61%.  I wanted him to have a good Regional Championship test so I took a risk and rode him with no whip or spurs, thinking a dull lazy test might be better than a brilliant test with a high possibility of bucking.  He was very good during his Training Level Championship ride, but boy did he feel lazy!  His ride was good enough for 8th place out of 24!  Glissando was 3rd in the First Level LEC Championships, and 5th at Second Level.  In the Regional Championships he came in 12th place at First Level, and 15th place at Second Level.  My students also did very well, Dee Glen and her horse Dimitri showed in their first Regional Championships and came in 5th in the Training Level AA LEC Championships, and 8th at First Level AA LEC Championships.  For their Regional Championships they placed 8th (out of 34!) at Training Level AA, and were 19th out of 33 at First Level AA.  Nicole Chiappetti and her horse Oxford showed great improvement over the weekend, taking a 3rd place in the Regional Junior Championships, Reserve Champions Third Level Jr/YR LEC Championships, and 5thplace Third Level Regional Championship Jr/YR with a career high 67.558%!  Finally, Renee McKinley had a fantastic weekend!  She was Champion Pr. St. Georges AA LEC Championships, Reserve Champions I-1 AA LEC Championships, had a 9th place finish for the Regional Championships I-1 AA, and they were ABIG/USDF Region 2 PSG Adult Amature Champions!  They even got a fancy write up about their wins in the Chronicle of the Horse!  Congrats to all for a very successful Region 2 Championships, may next year bring better weather!

Gladstone

Well, Pip and I made it to Gladstone to compete in the USEF Festival of Champions!  I remember when I first started to ride Pip in 2003, when he was a naughty 9 year old Training Level horse, that I thought he was nice enough to compete someday at Gladstone.  Thinking back on it, I may have had too high expectations for that rank 9 year old, but no one stopped me from trying.  Thanks to the support from my family, friends and especially Pip’s owner, Barrie Anderson, we actually made it to Gladstone, and were quite competitive!  We took an overall 4th place in the Brentina Cup Championships, and placed 2nd in the first round of competition!  It was a wonderful experience and we made some new friends there.  I think Debbie McDonald might just be one of the nicest people around for helping me out at Gladstone, thank you, thank you, thank you!  I’m pretty sure I still have that red Gladstone mud on my shoes!